Dear Grandchildren,
The following is a little boring, even for me. So reader beware.
When I was on the BYU faculty (at this point, we hear a drum roll), I attended a lot of presentations by colleagues who had been working on one project or another. As you might guess, some were interesting, others were, well, you know, a bit boring. They were all important, however, because the individual, or team, had put a lot of energy and time into a research effort. I thought that I was basically finished with that sort of thing. Until. Until a fellow who owns a travel company, that caters to Christians who come to visit Turkey from abroad, invited Grandma and me to an afternoon seminar for tour guides. On the one hand, it sounds pretty awful. On the other, it turned out pretty well. I was interested to go. Oddly, the three presentations, two by Americans, were all on ancient Christian topics. Why is that unusual? Because the country is 99 percent Muslim. But the general populace was not invited, nor does it have any interest. But tour guides are dealing with Christian travelers all the time. And they have to be aware.
One of the presentations focused on a very prominent family whose members had a big influence on the Council of Nicea where the Nicene Creed was formulated. Another had to do with the town that almost became the capital of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, a place called Nicomedia. Instead, the Emperor Constantine chose to build his capital on a site that, in time, became Constantinope and later Istanbul. The best of the presentations had to do with a term that the Apostles Paul and John apply to the Savior, a term that is usually translated "propitiation" or "expiation" and refers to Jesus’ Atonement. It turns out that a few recently discovered inscriptions in this part of the world from Roman times apply this term to the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). This meant that early Christian preachers, in talking about Jesus, were running into people who genuinely thought that the Christians were trying to undermine the Roman Empire. This was a serious charge, as you might imagine. For me, the presentation was a small window into the huge challenges faced by Christian missionaries trying to bring people to the Lord. It is not unlike the challenges today where the YVs face daily those who tell them that they have been smoking something when they describe Jesus.
Today in church services, we enjoyed a very good program. The main speaker was my first counselor who talked of being helped by the Spirit of the Lord last week through a terrible tangle of things connected to his work. Because of the spiritual help, he now expects to finish a project that he had essentially given up on. If he had walked away from that job, as he intended, he would have been finished in Turkey. As it is, he is still standing and believes he will finish the task on Tuesday. It was a moving story.
Twenty is the number who joined us this morning, nine in the room where we meet and eleven by Skype or smart phone. One of those with us in the room is from a distant branch. He holds a call to serve a mission in Europe. In fact, he is the second missionary to be called to that mission during the past few months. The two of them will be a wonderful addition to a missionary force that is constantly running into Turkish people who live and work abroad. One investigator joined us through his smart phone which means that he heard the service but did not see it. The same for a church member. Others had access to computers and could join by Skype. For the moment I am satisfied with including some who have opportunity only to hear whereas a few weeks ago there was absolutely no contact with them on Sundays.
The heavens have opened and rain has been constant for almost 24 hours. I was planning to go to Ephesus tomorrow with three young men, but we have postponed for a week because the rain will be as bad tomorrow. And the wind has been brisk, although it has calmed this evening. To enjoy it all, I have a touch of sickness, the first time in several years. So I shall probably hang around the apartment tomorrow and not go anywhere that I have to make a serious effort to move. We have a bunch of antibiotics, but I don't know whether to dip into them. Your mother will have a good sense about my stricken condition. The good news is that I am still breathing. I hope that you are too.
I love you and pray for you.
Grandpa Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment